You just never know.

Today, after my normal set of “visits” in town, I decided to wash my car.  Not by hand, mind you.  But I like to go into one of those bins, where the big arms automatically move back and forth, spraying the vehicle with the soapiest soap, and the wettest of water.  Moments later, you come out smelling like a rose.

But you have to put money in the little slot to make it work.  I was in the middle of such action…. when the following event transpired.  Truly.

Of course, my window was rolled down, so as to operate the money-taking-car-wash-machine.  I heard, at a distance someone yelling… frantically.

Finally I could make it out.  “Lady. Hey Lady.  Are you alright?”  Over and over again.  I checked my surroundings, and my mirrors, but I could not locate the voice.  Then, I thought I heard what sounded like running footsteps.

Suddenly, and I mean SUDDENLY… a head popped into my window.  “Lady!  OH my GOD!  Are you okay?  Can you hear me? Are you ALRIGHT?” the head squealed, as its pop-bottle-bottomed glasses blinked wildly at me.

“I’m just fine, thanks.  And you?”  (Of course, the look on my face probably looked ANYTHING but alright….. because I was in a state of semi-panic-fear with this sudden talking-head in my car window.)

The woman in my window, WHO was not THAT much younger than I… then started a scattered explanation… about 14 decibels too loudly.  “Oh, OK.  I just… well.. we were driving… and it was a car identical to yours… and we were right at that intersection over there… and an old woman in a car just like yours… ran right into the back of us… and then she kept driving…. and I … I was just making sure she was okay… and she hit us pretty hard…right into the back of our car… and we are all okay. But she kept on going.  I wanted to be sure she was okay.”

WHOOOOAAAA.  Back up there a minute… little Nellie.  Did you say OLD woman?  OLD dang woman?  Is that what just came out of your babbling-brook-of-a-mouth?  OLD WOMAN?   And you are confusing me with her?

I am sure my mouth was wide open at this point.  My jaw had dropped well bellow my knees.  I’m sure of it.

I could not speak at first.   And then I uttered…” I’ve been visiting my Mom at Greenbriar Nursing Center.  And I just pulled into this lot, from over there.  It wasn’t me.”

“Oh.  Okaaaay.”  And the head disappeared from my window, just as quickly as it came.  I looked in my side view mirror, and noticed the woman was wearing a rather sturdy back brace as she scampered away.  No doubt, a result from the last time an old woman rear-ended their car.

Way too much drama, drama, drama… for one little car wash… I’ll tell you.   Somebody asked me the other day why I liked to keep my car so clean?  Well frankly, I am beginning to wonder if it is worth it.

And tonight, when I arrived home from my last meeting, I checked my Google News Feeds, as always.  Apparently an MIT professor says that cars  should never be fully driverless.  He continues… “If the problems that robotics encounters in extreme environments are any indicator, then self-driving cars are a bad idea.”

The guys is David Mindell.  He is a professor of the History of Engineering at MIT.  And now… he is the author of  Our Robots, Ourselves: Robotics and the Myths of Autonomy.   And Davey-boy said his argument against fully autonomous vehicles isn’t based on principles, but on history.  There have been a lot of mistakes and a lot of errors.

Based on today’s history, I would say this fella’ is right.  If we can’t sit motionless while waiting for a carwash without being accosted while scouring our purses for quarters… … .. how can we EVER expect our robots to?
But that is just one OLD LADY’S opinion.

I have to go to bed now.  Right after I have my warm milk.

There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed.
— Napoleon Bonaparte

I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.
— Thomas A. Edison

Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.
— Mark Twain